The optional question for this month is: How has your creativity in life evolved since you began writing?

Being a creative person means learning to seek and embrace inspiration from all aspects of life. Painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, writers, and people in countless other professions use their creativity every day. Their art evolves and changes over time as they navigate the world. They allow the world to shape and mold them and inspire their art, but their art also shapes and molds how they see their world.

I've always wanted to be a writer, so I've been exercising my creative muscles for a long time. The stories I wrote as a kid were simplistic and fun, mostly because that was the way I experienced life as a child. The older I get and the more I mature, the more experience I have to draw from when it comes to creating stories and characters. I learn more about how people think and feel from both interacting with them in real life and writing them on the page. My experiences in the world help me create more complex characters and explore the nuance in situations that I once thought were black and white.

Most importantly, though, my evolving creativity has allowed me to empathize with people who are different from me. Through my experiences in writing characters, I've learned to place myself in their shoes and attempt to understand how they see the world. This translates to daily life, and having the ability to empathize with others is something the world truly needs.